Having just returned from the US recently, and did a bit of driving I was curious what others felt about they way driving is approached somewhere different.

My observations during my short driving time there:

- Size - a little arbitrary but all of the cars and especially the pickups in the US are bigger. Some were insanely massive!

- Mile markers (twinned with exits) - Liked this, on highways they were common, you really sensed where you were in relation to your trip and also prepared you for exits etc. Exits having a meaningful number made much more sense to me. I sometimes find motorways here a little disorientating in that respect. Just arbitrary numbers I feel.

- Because cars are mostly automatic, handbrake is not used, instead leaving the car just in Park. That's weird :p

- Right on red. That was such a mind breaker to me for some reason. Stop at a light. Oh? I'm going right, so it's basically a stop sign? Ok...

- light systems at night. Flashing amber (all directions give way I think) and flashing red (basically a stop sign now)

Anyone else have observations of driving in other countries?

Drove in the USA as well, similar observations as yourself, the right on the red was the one that got me though, it felt unnatural to drive through a red light, think the Americans thought I was stupid.

Distances seemed to be less there (I know there not) but we did San Francisco down to San Diego with stops but it didn't seem that far when I think about it.

- light systems at night. Flashing amber (all directions give way I think) and flashing red (basically a stop sign now)

 

 

This is something I really wish would be adopted here.

 

If possible I'll do long trips at night and it really does get annoying if you need to pass through a town stopping at red lights with not another soul around (just the soulless camera watching the lights...).

I've never been to the USA, but I usually drive to Lithuania once a year and they have a similar system where you can turn right on a red light if there is a sign with a green arrow pointing right as per the link below.  I've found I get used to it very quickly and always check for the arrow sign if I'm turning right at lights.  You have to watch out if pedestrian lights are on green for the road you are exiting from, as you must wait for them to cross before you can turn.

 

https://goo.gl/maps/Ec0zp

Driving in Denmark, the road direction signs are all at knee height or thereabouts. Which means when approaching a junction your view of the oncoming traffic etc isn't blocked by the signs telling you which town is in which direction.

Having just returned from the US recently, and did a bit of driving I was curious what others felt about they way driving is approached somewhere different.

My observations during my short driving time there:

- Size - a little arbitrary but all of the cars and especially the pickups in the US are bigger. Some were insanely massive!

- Mile markers (twinned with exits) - Liked this, on highways they were common, you really sensed where you were in relation to your trip and also prepared you for exits etc. Exits having a meaningful number made much more sense to me. I sometimes find motorways here a little disorientating in that respect. Just arbitrary numbers I feel.

- Because cars are mostly automatic, handbrake is not used, instead leaving the car just in Park. That's weird :p

- Right on red. That was such a mind breaker to me for some reason. Stop at a light. Oh? I'm going right, so it's basically a stop sign? Ok...

- light systems at night. Flashing amber (all directions give way I think) and flashing red (basically a stop sign now)

Anyone else have observations of driving in other countries?

Just returned from another road trip in the USA, 2840 miles in all.

 

In Wyoming and Montana larger pick up trucks appears to be the norm. The roads are bigger and less crowded.

 

The mile markers are useful in know the distance before you need to turn off.

 

Usually have a foot operated 'handbrake' to the left of the brake pedal.

 

Right on a red if the road is clear is great, helps the traffic move.

 

Flashing red at junctions and the 4 way, where you move off in the order you arrived.

 

Also: Red paint on the kerb stones where you can't park, this is good on corners.

Crossing the road is also good, with the count down timers to let you know how long you have to cross the road.

Spent 5 months in US this year. Driving standards generally shocking. Coincident on and off ramps for consecutive junctions a recipe for disaster too. Also you cant always go right on red, or only somtimes left unless the filter arrow is on... this inconsistency of the rules is as dangerous as the drivers.

Speed fines are a bit harsh too, especially in Texas ( $250 for 92 in a 75 zone ) - still I expect the cops Xmas party is very expensive.

Stealth cop cars more prevalent now - black Dodge Chargers with no visible light bar in New Mexico.

That said, I love driving there, I think it's the 40pence per litre that keeps me in that happy place.

Jamaica - easy to get about, but many of the rural road signs are stolen to fix huts - you need gps.

Mo Bay rush hour a bit scary in a rental - big risk to your deposit.

Mexico - Roads pretty good, fuel cheapish, massive speed bumps through villages, corrupt cops pick on tourists.

Oman - good main road network, petrol almost free, illegal to drive dirty car!

Jersey, speed limit between 20-40, way too much traffic, get a bus.

Dutch Antilles - rubbish drivers, lax gun laws, don't stop if you have a bump.

Edited 28 June, 201510 yr by camelspyyder

New Zealand is interesting. The standard of driving generally is pretty poor. Lots of impatient people. Tailgating, speeding, poor overtaking decisions, inconsistent indicating. National speed limit of 100kph.

There are some great roads though. State Highways are basically A roads in most places. Only Auckland bothers with or needs junction numbers.

 

Locals love to blame the tourists and immigrants for all accidents but then drive on the phone, texting, drinking coffee etc etc. Drink and drug driving is a big issue and still part of the rural NZ culture.

 

Defensive driving is essential

I learned to drive in London, but nothing really prepares you for downtown Doha or Kuwait City; they make Limassol look normal! And as for Stanley in the Falklands Islands...

Took me a while to get used to the American 4-way junction where you move of in the order you arrived. And not being allowed to overtake buses that were stopped at bus stops was another odd one.

Took me a while to get used to the American 4-way junction where you move of in the order you arrived. And not being allowed to overtake buses that were stopped at bus stops was another odd one.

Do you mean school buses? You're not allowed to pass a school bus in either direction when it has the STOP signs on.

Turning right on a red in the US made a lot of sense when you got used to it. Many times here I think the flow would be much better if we could turn left on a red.

 

Overtaking on both side was a bit weird especially when some massive Peterbilt truck comes up your left at 85mph.

 

I naively thought the speed limit in the states was 55 everywhere. Also found the actual speed limit signs varied rather randomly and they were hard to spot. Got buzzed by a police patrol car on our last day in the states, we'd done a  big drive out across to the space coast and I was getting comfortable and my brain flipped back to UK speed so I was barrelling along doing abut 80 no doubt in a 60. Cop came right up behind us lights flashing but when I pulled over he shot off. Must have figured us for a tourist and giving us a fright was better than filling out paperwork.

 

Also got caught out with their 'streets' which were often bigger than our motorways. One wrong took 50 miles to turn around and come back.

Edited 20 July, 201510 yr by Aspman

Personally I much prefer driving in the US than the UK, although it very much depends exactly where you are in both countries.

 

I find the general standard of driving in the UK to be very poor these days, everyone races away from the lights when there's no point as you can see the traffic 100 yards in front is stopped, people rarely give way when they know you want to change lanes or pull out etc, if you let someone pull out you rarely get a 'thanks' wave, and as for excessive speed - don't get me started. I usually find little of this happens anywhere near as often in the US.

 

While fuel is much cheaper over there their vehicles go through so much of it it works out much the same price/mile as here. I'm used to covering 700+ miles on a tank in my Skoda, not 250/300 like many of their vehicles. VW do sell their TDI vehicles there but you see so few of them, and the diesel pumps are often hidden out the back somewhere.

 

Last week I was in Sicily and they drive pretty badly. It was common to overtake on solid white lines or when you couldn't see around a bend, often three cars were side by side on a two lane road, the excessive speeding there is far worse than it is here - even when local police cars are around, lane discipline is often non existent, and they pull out in front of you when they don't have right of way, but strangely hardly anyone ever uses their horn to let others know they disapprove of others bad manoeuvres, they just seem to accept it, and the roads are very badly maintained - way worse than UK roads. Their Transport Minister resigned earlier this year when pressurised over the state of the roads there and corruption.

Wow! I forgot Sicily and Cyprus in my round up.

 

Sicily is hilarious - the rental agent said "just come back alive" when handing over the keys.  So we made some LHD virgins drive us through Catania rush hour. Exciting!  Once had 3 separate accidents (I wasn't driving) between the airport there and the hotel.

 

Cyprus - rent a motor bike and seek out some of the Cyprus Rally stages - lots of fun.

I learned to drive in London, but nothing really prepares you for downtown Doha or Kuwait City; they make Limassol look normal! And as for Stanley in the Falklands Islands...

Took me a while to get used to the American 4-way junction where you move of in the order you arrived. And not being allowed to overtake buses that were stopped at bus stops was another odd one.

Yes! My american host had to keep telling me it was my go, I had right of way because I was there first.

 

 

Stealth cop cars more prevalent now - black Dodge Chargers with no visible light bar in New Mexico.

I was quite surprised as well to see how subtly marked some of the cars were. If you weren't paying attention then you could very easily miss them. Which I guess is the point. No comparison to the fluorescent yellow and blue stickers we see here

Having failed miserably with my intention of posting a diary of my trip through eastern Europe to Turkey and back - here are a few observations -

 

First, a few general observations....

....With a few exceptions, drivers in mainland Europe all appear to adhere strictly to speed limits in roadworks.  No need there for average speed cameras.

....Motorway service areas tend to be smaller - but much less crowded - than British ones; also, outside cities, the motorways themselves are usually less crowded, especially when they are toll motorways.

....Like the UK, fuel is usually significantly cheaper off motorways.

 

France - not a lot to say, apart from a reminder of the legal requirement to carry approved breathalysers in the car.  Tolls on the motorways, of course, and these can add up quickly to a lot of money.  Having said that, the Routes Nationales (Nxxx) are often good, fast roads with bypasses around towns and cities.  The old "Priorité a droite" system - giving vehicles entering roundabouts right of way over vehicles already on the roundabout - is rapidly disappearing.

 

Belgium - still upgrading some of their motorways, so a lot of roadworks.  Service stations have vastly improved over the last few years.  Sadly, the best idea the Belgians had on motorways seems to be disappearing - roadsigns on the central reservation.  Great when you're blocked by an HGV from seeing the road sign on the side of the motorway. Motorways are free.  Motorway numbering is odd - in French speaking areas, they use the Belgian route numbers (Axxx), in Flemish speaking areas, they use the Euro Route Exxx number.

 

Luxembourg - the fastest drivers in Europe, I think!  Luxembourg registered cars seem to have the least respect of any country I've visited for speed limits. Motorways are free.

 

Germany - No problems - the main thing to be aware of is the speed limit on Autobahns.  Yes - many are still unlimited (with an advisory limit of 130 KPH), but there are many stretches with limits of 80, 90, 100, 110, 120 or 130 KPH.  The vast majority of drivers on Autobahns don't even approach 130 KPH.   To my mind, the services stations have the best food of any motorway service areas anywhere - but you have to pay to use the loos (70c, but you get a 50c voucher to use in the shop/restaurant!)..  Loads of roadworks this summer.  For fuel, keep an eye out for signs to "Autohof" - this is an off-motorway service area (usually within a km of the motorway) where fuel is some 20 cents cheaper than at service stations o the Autobahn.

 

We're now entering the former communist nations so another generalisation - Public transport - bear in mind that, for 40 odd years, few people had access to cars.  As a result, the public transport in eastern Europe is outstanding.  From a driver's point of view, this means busses, trams and trolley busses.  They are everywhere.  Every decent sized town or city has trams - and they usually have priority.  Tram stops are often in the middle of the street, with pedestrians crossing the road to the tram stops.  The crossings are normally marked - often with traffic lights.

 

In most of the eastern Europe countries I've visited this year, traffic lights are interesting - as soon as the light turns from green to amber, everybody stops - but when the light turns from red to green, everybody waits for a noticeable moment before setting off.  I could understand this if it was normal to run the amber light, but they just don't do that! Also, in some cities, there are timers on the traffic lights which give you a countdown to the red light, them a countdown to the green light.  That, I like!

 

 

Czech Republic - vignette required for the motorways - this can be bought on line, or at the border.  The main motorway, from Prague to Brno, is mainly a tired, rough concrete surface.  Main roads were not too bad, but there were a lot of towns/villages with a 50 KMH speed limit.

 

Slovakia - vignette required for the motorways - this can be bought on line, or at the border.  Apart from the odd stretch of new, and excellent, motorway, the driving is much as in the Czech Republic.

 

Hungary - electronic vignette is required for the motorway - this can only be bought online (AFAIK) and it requires some juggling with Bing translator as the website is only in Hungarian.  Motorways and main roads are fine.

 

Romania - This is when driving starts to get interesting - an electronic vignette is required for ALL MAIN ROADS, and this can only be purchased at the border, or at some petrol stations within Romania.  Because we're now leaving the Schengen area, there is a passport check on the Hungarian/Romanian border, but it's a very quick formality - you hand your passport to the Hungarian officer, he checks it, hands it to his Romanian opposite number who checks it, then hands it back.  All done without getting out of the car.

 

Romania's motorways are mainly under construction, but what's available is great.  As they finish a section, they open it, so you'll have a mixture of motorway and "main roads".  As this is one of the main transit countries from western Europe to Turkey, there  are a lot of HGVs on the roads.  Road surfaces are often pretty rough, and there are lots of small roadworks filling in the worst of the potholes.  Tailgating is a national sport - as is overtaking on blind corners and just before the brow of hills :-)  Having said that, the only car I saw pulled up by the Police was a British registered Maserati, which had passed me a few minutes earlier.  The best run I had in Romania was on my return leg, from Bucharest to the border crossing into Serbia at Dobreta-Turno Severin.  Mostly good quality A roads with bypasses, so not too many 50 KMH towns to amble through.  Throughout Romanian, police were usually obvious in towns - they tend to drive Dacia Logans - but, there again, the did stop the bloke in the Maserati.

 

Bulgaria - A vignette is required for ALL MAIN ROADS, and this can only be purchased at the border, or at some petrol stations within Bulgaria.

 

I crossed from Romania to Bulgaria on the "Danube Bridge" across the Danube from Giurgiu in Bulgaria to Ruse in Bulgaria.  The bridge was built in 1954 and has suffered badly over the years - the road surface is appalling.  The Romanians are currently resurfacing their end of the bridge, one lane at a time. There are immigration checks at the ends of the bridge - in both cases it was, again, a quick hand-the-passport-through-the-window check.

 

Like Romania, Bulgaria has not too many motorways, although they are slowly building them. Main roads in Bulgaria are generally pretty good - they usually completely by-pass towns and villages, so you can often drive for 100 KM or so without slowing down.  Having said that, the road I took - Bulgaria National Route 55, had a stretch of the worst road I've ever driven on.

 

Although Bulgaria uses the Cyrillic alphabet, the vast majority of roadsigns were in both Cyrillic and Latin.

 

Turkey - I knew this would be the fun border crossing.  It was vastly better that 10 years ago (4+ hours), but still took around 75 minutes.  First a long queue to leave Bulgaria - and the first request for my car's registration docs.  Once the Bulgarian gent was satisfied, it was into another queue for entry into Turkey.  First was immigration, which was straightforward as I already had an E-Visa for Turkey.  Next was customs, where I had to present the V50, Green Card and my passport.  The car details were entered into the computer, and my passport was stamped with the notation that I'd temporarily imported a car.  I could now only leave Turkey in the car, unless it was written off, or I was in a wooden box :-)

 

It proved impossible - to me - to get the necessary electronic tag to drive on motorways in Turkey.  Allegedly this is sold at Shell stations (and at post offices) so I stopped at the Shell station at the border - and was told to try elsewhere....  Not a big problem, as the main road, from the border at Edirne, to Istanbul is generally excellent - just a bit slower than the motorway.  When I was in Istanbul, I asked the staff at the hotel how I could get a tag so that I could legally cross the Bosphorus to the Asian side.  They assured me that I would never be caught, so I took their word and got away with it.  I don't like doing that, but...

 

Driving in Turkey - even around Istanbul - isn't that bad.  I've had many worse experiences in London and Glasgow.  Motorways are excellent, and the main roads I used were generally pretty good.   They only deteriorated in the patter stages of my drive from Turkey to....

 

Greece - As I still had the car, I was allowed to leave Turkey :-)  My passport was stamped appropriately, and the Greeks then allowed me in.  From the Turkish border, it was a very long drive, almost all on motorway, to Athens.  Greek motorways are toll motorways, and it is possible to get an electronic tag - I didn't bother for a one-off trip.  Between the Turkish border and Thessaloniki, there were 3 or 4 toll stations.  Between Thessaloniki and Athens, there are 13!!!!  At every one, I had to stop, get out of the car, walk around to the toll booth, and part with a couple of Euros. n The motorways are good, but still have the occasional gap which is under construction.  Very few service areas, but plenty of stopping areas with toilets, except towards Athens, where the loos are still under construction.  Greek Police - usually driving Skodas - patrol the motorways at low speed with the blues on.  Off the motorways, the road surfaces were pretty good and the standard of driving was "Central London" :-)

 

Again, most road signs were in both alphabets, and virtually all the toll collectors on the motorways spoke some English.

 

From Greece, I went back through Bulgaria (quick border check and terrible roadworks for the first 25 KM) to Sofia, then on to Bucharest in Romania - back across the Danube Bridge - then on to.....

 

Serbia - Much like the Danube Bridge, here the border crossing was over the top of a hydro-electric dam.  The first 100 miles of Serbian roads was truly horrible - the road was a rough 2 lane road which followed the south bank of the Danube, with (from memory) 23 tunnels - all pretty short (100-200 metres).  Speed limit was 80 KPH, but I wasn't at all happy driving that fast!!!!  The main road I ended up on was fine, and driving in Belgrade was, again, "central London" standard.  From Belgrade to the Croatian border was toll motorway. Excellent, with a ticket at the start and a pay-up toll booth at the finish.  From Serbia, I crossed back into the EU at....

 

Croatia - Toll motorway all the way to Zagreb - again it was a take-the-ticket-and-pay-at-exit.  Excellent motorway - free around Zagreb.  The off-motorway roads I used were also of excellent condition, apart from a few rough spots.

 

From Croatia, I re-entered Schengen at the border with....

 

Slovenia - at last vignette country - this can be bought on line, or at the border. Oddly, the vignettes are stick-on, rather than electronic, but they have occasional toll booths where you have to slow down to 40 KMH.  HGVs and coaches have to stop and pay at a toll.

 

This was a transit en-route to Austria, Germany, Belgium, France and the Channel Tunnel.  I stopped in Ljubljana for a quick Big Mac and had a potter around a few villages in northern Slovenia.  On the country roads, which were often single lane, oncoming drivers always pulled over - it was a bit like driving in the west of Scotland.

 

Austria - another vignette - available online or bought from petrol stations in neighbouring countries.  However, some hefty charges on top of that - the border from Slovenia to Austria which I crossed was a tunnel, with a toll of 7 Euros.  Further up the motorway from Slovenia to the German border near Salzburg, there was a further toll of 11 Euros.

 

So - fuel prices - pence per litre - all for regular diesel apart from the first Turkish one which was for Shell V-Power....

 

 

Coquelles France Carrefour Diesel 83.65

Offenbach Germany Esso Diesel 83.65

Pustiměř Czech Republic Shell Diesel 94.08

Gilău Romania Rompetrol Diesel 94.77

Edirne Turkey Shell V-Power 99.06

Ipsala Turkey Shell Diesel 95.32

Πανόραμα Greece Shell Diesel 84.99

Благоевград Bulgaria Shell Diesel 85.83

Işalniţa Romania Rompetrol Diesel 87.31

Starine Slovenia Petrol Diesel 86.70

Bettingen Germany Esso Diesel 84.36

Coquelles France Carrefour Diesel 80.81

 

Cheers

Simon

Edited 25 July, 201510 yr by Simon Brooke

Ooops - something went wrong - see below....

Edited 25 July, 201510 yr by Simon Brooke

- Because cars are mostly automatic, handbrake is not used, instead leaving the car just in Park. That's weird :p

 

 

Nah - that's normal!  I only use the handbrake on my Superb on ferries and the Channel Tunnel train - otherwise I always leave it in Park!

 

Cheers

Simon

 

Edited 25 July, 201510 yr by Simon Brooke

New Zealand is interesting. The standard of driving generally is pretty poor. Lots of impatient people. Tailgating, speeding, poor overtaking decisions, inconsistent indicating. National speed limit of 100kph.

There are some great roads though. State Highways are basically A roads in most places. Only Auckland bothers with or needs junction numbers.

 

Locals love to blame the tourists and immigrants for all accidents but then drive on the phone, texting, drinking coffee etc etc. Drink and drug driving is a big issue and still part of the rural NZ culture.

 

Defensive driving is essential

 

Funny - I was thinking of other countries I've driven in, and New Zealand was at the top of my list of favourites!  

 

I drove from Auckland around the north and east of North Island to Wellington, from where I flew to Christchurch.  I then drove down the east coast of South Island to just short of Invercargill, then back up the west, through the mountains.

 

Apart from the odd manic truck driver on the gorgeous drive from Rotorua through Taupo to Napier, I don't remember any particularly bad driving from other road users.

 

Cheers

Simon

South Africa is definitely an interesting country to drive in....

 

On one of my visits, I was driving - late at night - from Johannesburg towards Nelspruit to start a trip through the Kruger National Park (my favourite place on earth!).

 

Pitch dark, not another vehicle in sight, and we suddenly came across a mattress in the fast lane of the motorway.

 

A couple of minutes later, we met a car driving the wrong way up the hard shoulder, with a grossly overloaded roof rack - I presume that he was on the way to rescue his mattress :-)

 

Many main roads in SA have a wide shoulder, and it is standard practice for slower vehicles to pull over to let faster vehicles past....

South Africa is definitely an interesting country to drive in....

 

On one of my visits, I was driving - late at night - from Johannesburg towards Nelspruit to start a trip through the Kruger National Park (my favourite place on earth!).

 

Pitch dark, not another vehicle in sight, and we suddenly came across a mattress in the fast lane of the motorway.

 

A couple of minutes later, we met a car driving the wrong way up the hard shoulder, with a grossly overloaded roof rack - I presume that he was on the way to rescue his mattress :-)

 

Many main roads in SA have a wide shoulder, and it is standard practice for slower vehicles to pull over to let faster vehicles past....

I worked for a week in the Port Elizabeth area a few ago. The locals sitting in the back of pick up trucks going to work and the guy driving in the 'wide shoulder' with a rear offside puncture with the rim scrapping on the road made me wonder what the f**k is going on. The people at the company I was contracted to referred to traffic lights as robots. The not so nice part was when they said 'make sure your doors are locked' and 'don't stop at a red if there is a crowd gathered, just slow down and blend with the traffic' 

- Size - a little arbitrary but all of the cars and especially the pickups in the US are bigger. Some were insanely massive!

 

South Africa is definitely an interesting country to drive in....

 

On one of my visits, I was driving - late at night - from Johannesburg towards Nelspruit to start a trip through the Kruger National Park (my favourite place on earth!).

 

Pitch dark, not another vehicle in sight, and we suddenly came across a mattress in the fast lane of the motorway.

 

A couple of minutes later, we met a car driving the wrong way up the hard shoulder, with a grossly overloaded roof rack - I presume that he was on the way to rescue his mattress :-)

 

Many main roads in SA have a wide shoulder, and it is standard practice for slower vehicles to pull over to let faster vehicles past....

This may be a strange coincidence.........But I have a friend from Johannesburg who was moving house around 5 years ago, who put it all on his brothers pickup with the mattress on top......which promptly blew off on the motorway into the carriageway. Maybe its a SA thing??

Zimbabwe- in town ,the locals will overtake you in any manner they can. Out in the bush, in daylight, there's only a few problems about-in my time, it was tostly the local police ,who had little idea of how to drive.. At night, biggest worry is meeting a KUDU (seven foot deer weighing about a ton ) which is hard to see ,even with a spotlight. ( GOOD EATING, THOUGH)

I've had few problems driving in RSA- apart from the limits on the curves being too low for a UK driver.

Common thing in Zimbabwe & RSA is "pirate taxis", who have roof racks to carry anything and everything.As do the busses. 

Switzerland.....amongst the worst I have encountered anywhere. Risk averse and generally you need to try and spot a driver who is:

 

Not using a mobile phone

Not smoking at the same time as above

Not tailgating on the motorway

Actually indicating at/on a roundabout

Capable of overtaking safely

 

No wonder car insurance is so expensive here......